Spawn: Armageddon Review

Date: 7/20/2005

If you’re into comics or cult movies, then you’re undoubtedly familiar with
Spawn. Spawn began life as a human being and was once a military special
operative named Simmons. Simmons found himself on the wrong side of a dark
conspiracy in the military that led to his violent death. His pain at losing
contact with is wife and his thirst for revenge were so great that he was
recruited by hell to become a demonspawn – a warrior of hell sent to do a
demon’s bidding on Earth. However, he soon began to resent his hellish masters
and regret what he had become. He instead became a rogue loner, working to
thwart the plans of his hellish former masters while mourning for his lost love.
In a world of brooding superheroes, Spawn can brood with the best of them.

Meet Spawn.

Now that you know about Spawn’s background, you can probably guess that
Spawn: Armageddon is an action game featuring much slaying of demons. To
dispatch these demons, Spawn carries a large axe as a weapon. He can also use
the chains attached to him by the demons of hell as a projectile-like whip.
Being a supernatural being, Spawn can call forth Hell Powers. Most of these
are offensive powers such as a Necroplasm Beam which shoots a bolt of energy at
enemies, but some have other effects like Hell Speed which
can slow the attacks of your enemies. These are powered by Necroplasm, so Spawn has
only limited use of these powers. Lastly, Spawn can acquire other more worldly
weapons such as shotguns to use to kill his enemies. Each type of attack is
mapped to a different button and weapons and hell powers can easily be selected
with the directional pad, making control of Spawn’s arsenal of attacks pretty
simple to manage. The game also features a target-lock feature which is a
godsend because without it it can be quite difficult to aim Spawn’s Hell Power and
chain attacks.

When you first start playing Spawn you’ll probably start to get a little
excited that you may have found a really good game here. Spawn himself looks
great and is animated well, and dispatching demons with his Hell Power attacks and
chains appears to make for some good gaming excitement. Unfortunately, like
Spawn’s deal with the devil, the warts soon begin to show and you’ll begin to
rethink your enthusiasm.

While the cutscene graphics and Spawn and demon models are well-done, the
levels themselves are very bland, repetitive, and generic. Nearly featureless
walls, alleys, and rooftops abound, with only the occasional smashable object
appearing to break the monotony. You'll eventually make your way to a space
station and even hell itself, but these locations sound far more exciting than
they really are. As you move from one generic level to the next,
there’s almost no connection between what you are doing and the game’s
storyline. You’ll make your way from one spot to another, a new level will load,
and occasionally a cutscene will play, but there will be little sense of
accomplishment as you progress through the game.

Making matters worse is the fact that the levels aren’t very well designed,
filled with frustrating jumps that will require you to repeat stretches of the
game until you can’t stand it any more. There are also plenty of jumps that
require you to jump, hover, and then hit a target with your chains to cross a
gap. However, the chain button does not respond consistently while hovering and
you often can’t even see your target which makes these jumps an exercise in
blind luck.